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Update (December 17, 2012): In Mattson Ridge v. Clear Rock Title, the Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hold a title insurer liable for damages in excess of policy limits when it wrongfully denied coverage. The Court did, however, stick the title insurer with a whopping bill: One over 100 times greater than it would have been…

I usually focus my posts on Minnesota real estate disputes, but I’ll make an exception if I sense a budding national trend. The trend in this case is that, more and more, title insurers are denying lender’s claims on the basis of the lender’s unwillingness to provide underwriting information to the insurer. In a case…

In a case of first impression in Minnesota, District Court Judge Ann Montgomery ruled on an important question in title insurance circles: When is a lender’s loss under a title insurance policy measured? This decision, in Associated Bank v. Stewart Title, is important (and worth watching for appeals) not only because it is the first Minnesota case to address the…

Update (August 2, 2012): The Minnesota Supreme Court knocked a blow to mom and pop organic farmers yesterday in its ruling in Johnson v. Paynesville Farmers Union Coop. The Court disagreed with the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and affirmed the trial court’s ruling that pesticide overspray does not constitute trespass in Minnesota.

Update (Jan. 27, 2012): On November 22, 2011, the Minnesota Supreme Court denied Naomi Farr’s petition for review. Looks like, for better or worse, this one is on the books. Original Post (Sep. 22, 2011): In a new published decision, Dimke v. Farr, the Minnesota Court of Appeals has called into question the effectiveness of the statutory…

Oral promises are, by their nature, fleeting and unreliable. This is apparently even more true when the promise is about manure. In Maday v. Grathwohl, the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that a written “Manure Easement” superseded a prior oral promise to deliver all manure to a neighboring farm. As a result, the neighboring farm that…

The best horror films share a common feature: The killer can always come back from the dead. The Minnesota Supreme Court recently decided that the same is not true of contribution and indemnity claims arising out of construction defects. In In re Individual 35W Bridge Litigation, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that the 2007 amendments to Minn.…

In Javinsky-Wenzesk v. St. Louis Park, the City of St. Louis park gave a couple landlords an ultimatum: Either evict a long-term tenant with a valid lease or lose your rental license. The landlords sued the city, seeking an injunction. While the legal issue (Whether the city’s ultimatum violated the landlords’ due process rights) is interesting and…

We buy homeowner’s insurance to protect our homes against perils. So, many homeowners are surprised to learn that their policies may exclude things that they believed were covered. For instance, many policies exclude water damage caused by defective construction. Such was the case in Friedberg v. Chubb & Son, Inc.

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Bio

Rob Shainess is a trial lawyer with a particular focus on resolving real estate, construction, and business disputes. Rob’s clients range from individual property owners to national banks, and everyone in between